Collisions with kids

In the past month, two of my kids have had overtaking adult skiers hit them while they were skiing with me -- my eight-year-old daughter a few weeks ago, and one of my five-year-old sons this past weekend.

The guy who hit my daughter initially claimed it was her fault because she was skiing unpredictably. He received an ass-ripping (profanity-free but unmistakeable) about how (a) she wasn't, and (b) the code of responsibility expressly states that the overtaking skier is responsible for avoiding those below, period. He then owned up to the fact that he was looking uphill at his bud, not where he was skiing, and he apologized. I eased up, told him it happens and she wasn't actually hurt, just be careful because there are a lot of kids out here.

The woman who hit my son on Saturday initially received a cold stare and shoulder from me as I attended to his bloody lip. (At first, she thought that he had chipped his tooth and said it loud -- up pulls another skier, who says "I'm a pediatric dentist; can I help?") But she was obviously really shaken up and trying to help as much as possible, including helping me cajole him into taking some snow into his mouth to help the cut. Then she burst out that she'd thought he was going one way but he turned, and she knew she shouldn't have been that close; she was on the verge of tears, and I really felt awful. Long story short, she stuck around long enough that he stopped crying and calmed down. (By contrast, his twin, about 25 yards downhill, lay down and whined about it taking so long. A patroller stopped to make sure he was okay. By that time, though, the actual injured kid was sucking it up and getting ready to try again.)

Those of you who have accidentally hit a kid while sliding might want to bear in mind the common theme for both incidents: Once the skier owned up and apologized, all was essentially forgiven.

I can't speak for every skiing parent, obviously, but I think that most of us recognize that accidents happen, and kids are more likely to catalyze them because they're more likely to be learning to ski, and lack the general experience to exhibit much common sense at times. Don't be a dick about it, and barring serious injury, things will probably work out.

Kids ski unpredictably. I'm sure most of us who were skiing at a young age have done things that have forced skiers behind us to take evasive action. You can't blame the short ones for that sort of thing, all you can do is give them a wide berth and be extra careful when you're sharing a run with them.

I had to bail out of some high-speed GS turns at ski camp when a 5 or-so year old shot across directly the slope. To make it worse, as I was crashing he had turned so he almost hit me on his next pass. Before I had finished tumbling.

The kid came straight out of nowhere (from the trees, I think), but I'm not going to blame a little kid. It's my responsibility to look out for those downslope, but I figure that wherever there might be kids or snowboarders I've got to have an 360-degree idea of what's going on.

I'm just a simple girl trying to make my way in the universe...
I come up hard, baby but now I'm cool I didn't make it, sugar playin' by the rules
If you know your history, then you would know where you coming from, then you wouldn't have to ask me, who the heck do I think I am.

Agree w/ Trayc...an adult impacting a little kid could seriously hurt or even kill a kid. You have to be able to stop/avoid/minimize the collision or you were skiing over your head and that's assinine (especially on a groomer).

Sprite

"I call it reveling in natures finest element. Water in its pristine form. Straight from the heavens. We bathe in it, rejoicing in the fullest." --BZ

I got blocked in once and couldn't turn out of the way of a little kid who just came out infront of me at a trail merger. Didn't hit the poor child, but he did get quite a surprise when I picked him up off the snow and he was suddenly "air-skiing." A quick hockey stop, "are you okay" and an apology to his mom was all it took for me to quickly continue on my way.

I was skiing with my kid and I saw a girl about 15yo comming down the hill with minimal control straight at my 4 yo. I slid in between them and braced myself for impact. She hit me and yardsaled. I asked if she was OK and when she said she was I caught up to my daughter who was oblivious to the whole chash. I heard her talking to her friend in the lineup. "....I hit him full speed and he didn't even fall down...," I laughed.

You are what you eat.
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There's no such thing as bad snow, just shitty skiers.

I always ski upslope from my son. I have had a few close calls with kids on tethers being turned into me, but i have never run into anyone, yet. We are still new, 2nd season, to the sport, so it may yet happen.

Both of my kids have been hit hard by older people, although now my son is a lot more likely to be the hitter than the hittee.

My daughter used to make way too many turns and traverse too much so she was going across the slope when everyone else was going down it so she was like a damn duck in a shooting gallery. It could get pretty scary sometimes.

Yet another good reason (for adults) to avoid the pistes entierly when they get crowded - sure on tree runs there are trees in the way and couloirs have rocks to hit, but there the obstacles don't MOVE AROUND RANDOMLY and there's a lot less guilt when you hit a rock versus a five year old.

Kids are as bad as adults at "random chaotic motion" in my experience. Basically to be 100% safe you just have to slow down an insane amount, even if you are skiing 2m radius turns down the side in total control, since it always takes a few meters to fully stop and you just never know when a muppet is gonna dart in your path. I'm surprised more accidents don't happen, honestly.

Heard about a kid getting killed a few years back in Tahoe from a collision. So it's serious stuff here.

My daughter got hit on Weasel, a groomed blue run through the trees, at a merge point with another groomer that's commonly used as a run-out from double-black steeps. (Very fun double-black steeps, I might add.)

While skiing with my timid daughter a 'Bro Bra' dude with a Powder Mag sticker on his helmet and Teton Gravity Sticker on his skis came flying down Patrolman's at Mammoth. He turned in front of my daughter so close that he clipped the side of her helmet with his pole. When we got to the lift I saw him in line. Approached him and said "dude, you clipped my daughter back there."

His response nearly got him killed. "She was in my line".

I was thinking more about this post last night.

I want to apologize for not outwardly expressing more empathy. I assumed it would be assumed, but it might not. I have particular empathy here because my son who was hit this weekend is also typically the more timid of the twins -- he gets scared and backs off fairly easily to begin with, and this season has required him to push through some serious skiing-specific fears. After Saturday's collision, he kept repeating that he wanted to go down and go home; I finally got him calmed down enough to agree that he didn't need to decide whether to stop until we got down, and then he agreed to take one of his favorite runs to end the day. For him in particular, I thought that ending the day with an accident might have ended his season, which might have ended his enjoyment of skiing.

Anyway, it looks like we made it through that okay -- he was psyched to get on the slopes Sunday morning despite the wind (some of the aforementioned skiing-specific fears stem from being stuck in a windstorm at Squaw on our last run of our last day of last season, but that's another story), had a great morning of it, and complained when I picked them up at noon and said we had to leave to get on the road.

First, my brother got hit when he was around 6 or 7; I think we were at Stowe. Guy comes down, out of control, skis across Ben's skis and knocks him down. This guy almost looses it, keeps it together, and skis away, not even bothering to check to see if my brother's ok. My mom (who, incidentally rips: Masters racer, former NH high school champion) checks to see that my brother's ok, and then charges after this guy, catches him at the lift line, and proceeds to rip him a new one. The whole maze gave her a round of applause.

On the other side of the coin, my greatest fear nearly came true two years ago at Alta. With all the snow we had that year, the rock band between Cecret Saddle and the sugarloaf lift line had filled in to produce a nice kicker. I'd been airing it all season, but this time launched about five seconds before a kid and his mom skied into the landing zone. Airborne, with nowhere to go, I just pulled my skis as far in as I could, and landed a yard or two ahead of them. Everyone was safe, but the adrenaline didn't go away until halfway through the next run. I didn't hit that one blind again.

I'm just glad I made it through the pre-helmet years as a kid without getting nailed...

To have a great adventure and survive requires good judgment. Good judgment comes from experience. And experience, of course, is the result of poor judgment. -Geoff Tabin

I got blocked in once and couldn't turn out of the way of a little kid who just came out infront of me at a trail merger. Didn't hit the poor child, but he did get quite a surprise when I picked him up off the snow and he was suddenly "air-skiing." A quick hockey stop, "are you okay" and an apology to his mom was all it took for me to quickly continue on my way.

bump because I've done the same scoop up of a kid routine when things got too close. also, there's a few maggots on the thread like snowsprite , dallas and cliff that don't seem to post anymore and I remember them as regulars back in the day.

bump because I've done the same scoop up of a kid routine when things got too close. also, there's a few maggots on the thread like snowsprite , dallas and cliff that don't seem to post anymore and I remember them as regulars back in the day.